I'm in the great lakes area - my climate is similar to Detroit, Buffalo,
Cleveland. Haven't had a frost yet.

Is now a good time, or a bad (ineffective) time to spray my lawn to kill
crane flies?

What do they hurt? They don'e bite do they?


From Mel & Donnie in Bluebird Valley





http://community.webtv.net/MelKelly/TheKids

Mel M Kelly wrote:

What do they hurt? They don'e bite do they?

They are turning my grass yellow.

But I've taken action recently and I've applies a bag of grub killer
followed up with a hose-end spray of several jugs of liquid grub
killer. Active ingredient is Sevin (Carbaryl).

I believe that in my area, that early to mid october is the best time to
apply Carbaryl to treat crane flies (aka leather jackets or
leatherjackets) as they feed in their late instar growth stage. I will
probably treat the area again in the spring to kill the damn things.

The crane fly is NOT native to US/Canada, and by not eradicating it we
are allowing a non-native species with no natural predator to become
endemic in our ecosystem. That is NOT a beneficial outcome for our
environment.

Same is true for the emerald ash borer. Thousands, if not millions of
ash trees (many of them healthy and un-touched) have been cut down to
stop the spread of the ash borer.

On Oct 18, 10:50*am, Lawn Guy wrote:
Mel M Kelly wrote:
What do they hurt? They don'e bite do they?

They are turning my grass yellow.

But I've taken action recently and I've applies a bag of grub killer
followed up with a hose-end spray of several jugs of liquid grub
killer. *Active ingredient is Sevin (Carbaryl).

I believe that in my area, that early to mid october is the best time to
apply Carbaryl to treat crane flies (aka leather jackets or
leatherjackets) as they feed in their late instar growth stage. *I will
probably treat the area again in the spring to kill the damn things.

The crane fly is NOT native to US/Canada, and by not eradicating it we
are allowing a non-native species with no natural predator to become
endemic in our ecosystem. *That is NOT a beneficial outcome for our
environment.

Same is true for the emerald ash borer. *Thousands, if not millions of
ash trees (many of them healthy and un-touched) have been cut down to
stop the spread of the ash borer.

wow, i never realized the larvae of crane flies were those grubby
guys. around here, my major lawn pest is beetle grubs. for those guys,
my understanding is that they've done most of their feeding by now and
are about to snooze; the time to slaughter them is earlier, like late
august or early sept, before they start feeding and before you can
actually see any damage.